








































Article 
 

Tuğba Nur Doğan Faitour, Graduate Student, Department of Language & Literacy Education, 
University of Georgia, Athens, GA; email td48177@uga.edu. 
 

Learning How to Use Mitigation 
Devices: A Peer-Supervisory 
Context Between a Non-Native 
Peer-Supervisor and a Non-Native 
English Teacher 

GATESOL Journal 
2022, Vol. 32(1), pp. 4–17 
doi:10.52242/gatesol.127 

ISSN: 2331-6845 
 

 
Tuğba Nur Doğan Faitour 
University of Georgia 
 
 

Abstract 
Learning how to provide effective supervision can be challenging. After all, helping language 
teachers increase awareness regarding their teaching practices requires the difficult task of 
giving them critical feedback, which, at times, can be a face-threatening act as will be defined 
later in the paper. To soften their criticism, supervisors make use of various language 
strategies. However, the task of delivering feedback using such language strategies in English 
can be even more difficult for supervisors who are also second language learners of English. 
Utilizing the mitigation devices Wajnryb (1994) conceptualized, this study analyzed the 
language used in three post-observation conferences in a peer-supervisory discourse between 
a non-native English teacher and a non-native peer-supervisor. The study found that mitigation 
devices as conceptualized by Wajnryb (1994) were effective in structuring a non-threatening 
and growth-oriented supervisory context when consciously used by the non-native peer-
supervisor. 
 
Keywords 
language teacher supervision, mitigation devices, non-native language teacher supervisor, 
peer-supervision 

 
Introduction 
In the field of language teacher supervision, one of the most significant elements is the post-
observation conference where the supervisor delivers critical feedback gained from classroom 
observation to the teacher. Wajnryb (1995) states that the post-observation conference is an 
indispensable part of supervision since it creates a context for the improvement of teaching 
practices. The concept of post-observation conference is based on the idea that “teachers can 
improve by gaining feedback” (Bailey, 2006, p. 141). The underlying assumption for the feedback 
is that teachers can only make the necessary changes in their instruction if they are aware of its 
effectiveness.  

Freeman (1989) defines awareness as the “capacity to recognize and monitor the attention 
one is giving or has given to something. Thus, one acts on or responds to the aspects of a situation 
of which one is aware” (p. 33). The importance of language teacher supervision lies in the fact that 
much of what is going on in a teacher’s classroom may be unknown to them as teaching is dynamic 
and being aware of everything in a lesson might be a challenge for the teachers. Therefore, it is the 
supervisors who help teachers become aware by providing information gained from classroom 
observation (Bailey, 2006).  

mailto:td48177@uga.edu


Doğan Faitour 5 
 

Nevertheless, delivering such critical information can be a challenging task for the supervisors. 
The very nature of the post- observation conference entails the discussion between what is and 
what should be, which in return might create a tension between the supervisor and the teacher. 
Therefore, it is important to set a positive tone in the post-observation conference. However, the 
task of delivering feedback in English while maintaining a non-threatening tone can be even more 
difficult for supervisors who are also second language learners of English. The concept of “non-
threatening” is vital, which places the topic of language at the core of this study’s discussion. 

The current study is the result of a peer-supervision process between a non-native English 
teacher and a non-native peer-supervisor who did not have experience in supervision prior to the 
study. The concept of peer-supervision is important since it allows for a supervisory context that 
is beneficial for both the teacher and the peer-supervisor. Alfonso (1977) stated that peer-
supervision context could be a very important source for “relatively non-threatening” assistance 
for the teacher (p. 600). Moreover, it also provides the opportunity for the peer-supervisor to 
practice supervisory language. Despite the fact that the peer-supervisor is a proficient speaker of 
English as a foreign language, she was not familiar with the supervisory language to conduct post-
observation conferences in English. For this reason, the mitigation devices conceptualized by 
Wajnryb (1994) were deliberately utilized to structure the language used to deliver critical 
feedback in the post-observation conferences between the non-native English teacher and non-
native peer-supervisor by scripting them prior to the post-observation conferences. Therefore, the 
study aims to answer the following questions: 
 

1. What mitigation devices were scripted prior to the post-observation conferences (POCs)? 
2. How were the scripted mitigation devices actually used during the post-observation 

conferences (POCs) and what was the response of the teacher? 
3. How did the teacher comment on the language used during the post-observation 

conferences in her post-POC journal? 
 
By answering these questions, the study investigates the language used and to what extent it was 
effective in creating a non-threatening and growth-oriented supervisory context with the aim of 
increasing teacher awareness regarding teaching practices. 
 
Literature Review 
 
Language in the Post-Observation Conference 
Research shows that in order to create an empathetic relationship to help the teachers alter their 
teaching behaviors, supervisors employ certain language strategies that allow them to have 
technical proficiency during the post-observation conferences (Holland, 1989). Thus, language 
plays a fundamental part in the post-observation conference and the delivering of feedback. 
Wajnryb (1994) carried out one of the most comprehensive analyses of language used in post-
observation conferences and found out that oftentimes, supervisors mitigate their language while 
delivering face-threatening acts (Bailey, 2009). Wajnryb (1994) defines mitigation as “the attempt 
by the speakers to hedge or undercut the full illocutionary force of their own assertions” (p. 201). 
She found that supervisors make use of mitigation to deliberately soften their message, partly to 
reduce the effects of the face-threatening act their message carries. 

According to Wajnryb (1994), face is “the public, socially valued image of self which 
participants in an encounter claim for themselves and each other” (p. i). Face-threatening act, on 



6 GATESOL Journal 32(1)  
 

the other hand, is “a communicative act which runs contrary to the face needs of speaker or hearer” 
(Wajnryb, 1994, p. i). Face-threatening acts have also been defined as utterances “that represent a 
threat to another individual’s expectations regarding self-image” (Erozan & Shibliyev, 2007, p. 
125). Thus, teacher supervision can be a face-threatening act in that it requires supervisors to 
communicate things to the teachers that they might otherwise not want to hear. To keep away from 
loss of face, Waite (1992) found that supervisors mostly reduce the weight of their criticisms. To 
do this, supervisors can choose to mitigate their language while delivering feedback.  
 
Mitigation Devices as Conceptualized by Wajnryb (1994) 
Conducting one of the most elaborative research of supervisory language, Wajnryb (1994) 
concluded supervisors make use of “a high degree of mitigation to ease them through unenviable 
tasks” (Wajnryb, 1998, p. 531). This necessity for mitigation results from the emergence of 
“conflict of interests” between what the message demands and the need to protect the face of the 
addressee (Wajnryb, 1994, p. 202). Wajnryb identified three fundamental types of mitigation 
supervisors resort to while delivering critical feedback: hypermitigation, hypomitigation, and 
above-the-utterance-level mitigation. Hypermitigation means there is too much mitigation that the 
message is so softened to a point that it is not clear anymore. Hypomitigation, on the other hand, 
means that there is too little mitigation that the message is too direct and most likely threatens the 
face (Bailey, 2006). Therefore, hypermitigation and hypomitigation are at the two ends of the 
spectrum. While it is the clarity of the message that is threatened in hypermitigation, in 
hypomitigation, the danger lies not in the reception of the message. That is, when the message is 
too direct, teachers may get defensive, and they may assume a passive or an adversarial role which 
would then risk the message to be absorbed by the teacher (Bailey, 2006). It is challenging for the 
supervisors to set the balance between hypermitigation and hypomitigation, and to deliver the 
critical feedback in a way that the message is clear but also not threatening. The third type of 
mitigation Wajnryb discusses, above-the-utterance-level mitigation, refers to this balance and 
awareness of language, which means that softened criticism is achieved. 

It is evident in Wajnryb’s study that supervisors achieve above-the-utterance-level 
mitigation by using various linguistic means, which are categorized as semantic and syntactic 
devices. Wajnryb (1994) argues that they are all strategic since they all work to reduce the effects 
of face-threatening acts. Below, there will be a more detailed explanation of each device. 
 
Semantic Devices 
Semantic devices refer to mitigation strategies that are fulfilled with words as signals of meaning 
(Wajnryb, 1994). They include qualm indicators, asides, lexical hedges, and hedging modifiers. 
To start with, qualm indicators are linguistic signals that demonstrate uneasiness and reticence by 
the speaker. They are used to show the speaker’s hesitation which then makes the message less 
certain and more ambiguous. They are a combination of aural and linguistic signals, and they are 
most likely to be fragments of utterances instead of whole utterances (Wajnryb, 1994). Some 
examples of qualm indicators are “um,” “well,” and “you know” (Wajnryb, 1994, p. 269). 

Lexical hedges are meaning of words supervisors choose over another to reduce the 
criticism and soften the impact of the message. Wajnryb (1994) argues that it is not possible to 
identify the words over which they are chosen since they are absent but asserts that it is sufficient 
to suggest possibilities and identify the strategy as avoidance of certain words. Lexical hedges are 
preferred as an alternative for the more congruent option of a word in order to mitigate the 
harshness of the message. By utilizing lexical hedges, supervisors can assume a shared ground in 



Doğan Faitour 7 
 

which only the teacher can understand the meaning of the word choice since it is only accessible 
to the ones who the information is shared with (Morallo, 2019). Moreover, when hedges are used 
as a linguistic device, they can point to a lack of full commitment by the speaker to the message 
they wish to convey (Fraser, 2010). Finally, lexical hedges are used to avoid technical language to 
reduce the professional distance between the speakers, as supervisors being seen as the expert. In 
this case, supervisors deliberately use style-shifted lexemes to show solidarity with the teachers. 

Asides are defined by Wajnryb (1994) as short utterances that come with criticisms and 
they differ from qualm indicators in that they are “complete units, not fragments” (p. 272). Their 
meaning in context is closely related to the criticism that accompany them. Lastly, hedging 
modifiers can be in the word, phrase or clause form which can consist of a word (e.g., “just”), a 
phrase (e.g., “a little”), or a clause (e.g., “I feel”; Wajnryb, 1994, p. 289). Among their functions 
are making the criticism vaguer and less significant, reducing the quantity of a related item, and 
reducing certainty and obligation (Wajnryb, 1994). 
 
Syntactic Devices 
Syntactic mitigation devices account for mitigation strategies that are realized with the 
grammaticalization of politeness through the syntax of the language (Morallo, 2019). The sub-
categories include tense shift, aspect shift, negating, interrogative structures, modal verbs, clause 
structures, and finally person shift. 
 Tense shifts allow the speakers to be politer and to mitigate their message. When the 
speaker chooses to use the past over the present, they distance that event from the present. Shift to 
present, on the other hand, occurs when the speaker wants to show solidarity with the addressee. 
Aspect as a grammatical category is concerned with how the action described by the verb is 
perceived, such as whether or not it is ongoing, continuous, recurring, or instant. Pragmatically, 
aspect shift makes the event more uncertain and less specific. Examples include nominalization 
using the -ing form to focus on the process that make the criticism more acceptable, such as 
“making them aware” rather than “make them aware” (Wajnryb, 1994, p. 238). Next, negation as 
a mitigation device is used to “mitigate rather than eliminate the representation of the negated 
concept” (Giora et al., 2005, p. 83). Negation serves the purposes of stating remarks that are 
considerably less informative, reducing the power of direct criticism, and letting the speaker reduce 
the criticism from an obligation to an option. For instance, “it’s not necessarily the best way to 
learn” (Wajnryb, 1994, p. 244). 
 Another type of syntactic mitigation device is interrogative structures. They are basically 
questions used as a mitigation strategy by supervisors to transform the criticism into a polite 
request. Supervisors make use of questions as an alternative to statements in that they give the 
opportunity to alter an “I” statement into a “you” question, turning criticism into obvious inquiry, 
as in “were you happy with the language analysis?” (Wajnryb, 1994, p. 246). Moreover, modal 
verbs are used as a source of pragmatic exploitation to reduce the assertiveness of the critical 
feedback. They can suggest a myriad of meanings such as degree of probability, attitude, and 
politeness (Morallo, 2019). As the final syntactic strategy, person shift can come in shift to the 
third person, shift to the first person, or shift to the second person in the ambivalent form. Shifting 
to third person gives the supervisor the opportunity to disguise the direction of the critical 
feedback, as in the example “I thought it worked well, but it wasn’t always consistent.” Mitigation 
occurs with the shift to the first person by the supervisor focusing the conversation on him/her to 
create a sense of solidarity. Finally, shift to second person removes the specificity of the person to 
whom the feedback is directed to, thus reducing the face-threatening effect of the criticism such as 



8 GATESOL Journal 32(1)  
 

“instead of you always asking the questions is to get them ask you a question,” which makes it less 
obvious to tell whether the supervisor is referring to the teacher as the addressee or people in 
general (Wajnryb, 1994, p. 265). 
 
Methodology 
 
Participants 
There are two main participants in this study. The first one is the researcher who acted as the peer-
supervisor and the second one is the subject who works as an EFL teacher in Turkey to whom the 
peer-supervisor delivered feedback regarding her lessons. Both participants are native speakers of 
Turkish with a high proficiency in English as a foreign language. The second participant 
voluntarily took part in the study as she saw it as an opportunity to improve her awareness 
concerning her classroom teaching practices. Classroom observations are normally conducted in 
the private elementary school the subject is working for with teachers observing each other’s 
classes as part of their professional development, but the subject thought doing the study with the 
researcher would provide her with new perspectives as the researcher is pursuing her graduate 
studies in the field. The relationship between the participants allowed for a peer-supervisory 
context as they had known each other for more than 10 years studying at the same high school and 
pursuing similar career paths. 
 
Data Collection Procedure 
After agreeing to take part in the study, the teacher informed the principals in her school to receive 
their permission for her classes to be observed by an outside researcher. Following the principals’ 
and parents’ permission, the peer-supervisor and the teacher met for a pre-observation conference 
the main purpose of which was for the researcher to familiarize with the lesson plan, course 
materials and objectives. Moreover, the goal of pre-observation conference was also to decide on 
areas of concern the teacher might want to address in the post-observation conferences (Yürekli, 
2013). After the pre-observation conference, the peer-supervisor observed a third grade class in 
which native Turkish-speaking students are learning English as a foreign language. The peer-
supervisor observed the same classroom three times, following each observation with a post-
observation conference where she delivered her feedback to the teacher. Thus, the data collection 
procedure involved six steps. First, the peer-supervisor observed the lessons via Zoom as all 
classroom instruction went online in Turkey in the spring 2021 semester due to the COVID-19 
pandemic. While observing the lesson, the peer-supervisor took field notes while recording the 
lesson. The second step involved transcribing the lesson and analyzing it based on the field notes. 
The second step also involved deciding what type of feedback the peer-supervisor would like to 
give to the teacher based on the points discussed in the pre-observation conference. In the third 
step, the peer-supervisor scripted the feedback she wanted to deliver to the teacher using the 
mitigation devices conceptualized by Wajnryb (1994). The next step included the post-observation 
conference where the peer-supervisor delivered her feedback to the teacher and the two discussed 
issues related to the classroom instruction over Zoom. In the fifth stage, the teacher wrote in her 
reflective journal her thoughts about the post-observation conference using a google doc for the 
peer-supervisor to peruse. In the final step, the peer-supervisor transcribed the conversations 
between herself and the teacher and went through the teacher’s journal for a detailed analysis. 
 
 



Doğan Faitour 9 
 

 
Data Analysis 
Qualitative methodology was used to analyze the data from the scripted and the actual feedback 
delivered in the post-observation conferences as they constituted the main data in this study. 
Qualitative methodology allows for an interpretation process which includes immersion in the data 
with the purpose of understanding phenomena with respect to the meanings people make of them 
(Richards, 2009). For the current study, qualitative methodology gives the opportunity to analyze 
the language used in the post-observation conferences to understand the extent to which the 
language allows for a growth-oriented and non-threatening peer-supervisory context for the 
teacher.  To achieve this, the peer-supervisor transcribed the conversations that took place in each 
post-observation conference. The peer-supervisor then analyzed the language used in her feedback 
in terms of what mitigation devices were utilized and what responses the teacher gave to the 
feedback to investigate whether the mitigation devices were successful in creating a non-
threatening and growth-oriented supervisory context. Each instance of delivering feedback and the 
teacher’s responses were extracted from the transcription to conduct a detailed analysis of the 
interaction between the peer-supervisor and the teacher. Moreover, the journals kept by the teacher 
were also analyzed qualitatively to understand if the language used in the peer-supervision process 
was effective in increasing teacher awareness regarding her instruction. 
 
Findings 
 
Language Analysis in the First Post-Observation Conference 
For the first post-observation conference, there were two main points of feedback (“F”) that the 
peer-supervisor wished to deliver to the teacher partly based on what they discussed in the pre-
observation conference. The scripted feedback was as follows: 
 

POC1 F1: “I noticed that students hardly ever use the target language, except for when 
answering your questions.” 
POC1 F2: “I thought the lesson was really great, but I was just wondering, could you also 
add more student-centered activities?” 

 
The way these scripted utterances was conveyed during the post-observation conference was 
similar to how they were structured. Below is the actual conversation that took place between the 
teacher and the supervisor: 
 
 F1: 

1 S: I also noticed during the lesson [teacher’s name] that students hardly ever 
2 use the target language. Except for answering your questions. What do you 
3 think is the reason for that? 
4 T: As you said, how can I say, the levels of students are very different. I should 
5 have some differentiation activities for them. I should check every student whether 
6 they are listening or not. Sometimes they are just there physically but mentally they 
7 are not there so I need to check every student. I always yes I always follow English 
8 but sometimes I need to speak Turkish because when you speak English all the 
9 time, they get blind. If you warn them in English sometimes they just don’t care but 
10 when I switch to Turkish, their attention is on me. So it works, when they are not 



10 GATESOL Journal 32(1)  
 

11 on task I switch to Turkish. But they are not very actively using English. That’s one 
12 of my problems. When it’s face-to-face education, it’s okay. They are always 
13 pushing themselves to speak in English but when they are online something 
14 happens. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because they are at home. They have 
15 different distractive tools around them. Sometimes the parents are talking, 
16 sometimes their toys are there. Something on the background is on. […………] So 
17 I should always force them to speak in English. 

 
F2: 
1 S: I thought the lesson was great. But I was just wondering if you could add more 
2 student centered activities. 
3 T: yeah, it was one of my concerns you remember. This was one of my concerns. 
4 Teacher talking time is a lot. Maybe it is about my attitude. I always try to control 
5 the students. And maybe I should give them more control. It was just a few minutes 
6 I told them to become the teachers. But you’re right. I should give them more 
7 opportunity. I feel like they are just passive listeners. Answering the questions. 

 
In lines 1 and 2 of the first comment, the teacher used clause structure to formulate her 

criticism which is among the syntactic mitigation devices. Clause structures are constructed with 
a perception word in the main clause with the criticism incorporated in the subordinate clause. 
They are used to reduce the effect of the criticism while allowing the listener to voice an opinion 
or even disagree. In the data, by asking the teacher what she thought could be the reason, the 
supervisor already invited the teacher to respond to her criticism. The perception word notice still 
suggests subjectivity which gives the teacher room to reject or disagree with the feedback. In fact, 
the teacher provided an explanation from her point of view that indicates that the way the peer-
supervisor structured her language allowed for negotiability for this particular criticism. 

Additional feedback involves both syntactic and semantic mitigation devices. The way it 
was scripted was slightly different than how it was uttered during the conversation. In the script, 
the peer-supervisor used a clause structure, but then added a direct question to it. However, during 
the actual conversation, the peer-supervisor used a question embedded in the clause structure. The 
reason for this could be that embedded questions as conceptualized by Wajnryb (1994) may have 
also sounded more natural to the peer-supervisor at the time of the conversation. The implications 
for this change in the peer-supervisor’s language are twofold. First, by studying the mitigation 
devices prior to the post-observation conferences, the peer-supervisor develops an unconscious 
understanding of the use of mitigation devices. Second, despite the fact that the peer-supervisor is 
a non-native speaker of English, her supervisory language reflects the real language used by the 
supervisors who are native speakers of English. 

Turning back to the analysis of the language, the peer-supervisor used both embedded 
questions and degree hedges to deliver her feedback that served three purposes in mitigating her 
language. First, embedded questions provide the criticism to be hidden in the subordinate clause 
which reduces the effect of what would have been a face-threatening act with a direct question. 
Another purpose allowed by embedded questions is to pre-empt defensiveness from the addressee 
by delaying the criticism. Finally, the word just reduced the force of the criticism by turning it into 
a mere inquiry. As a reaction to this criticism, the teacher admitted that it was one of her concerns, 
but instead of being a passive listener of the feedback, she identified her own areas of improvement 
and suggested ways to tackle with the perceived problem. In fact, in her journal entry after the 
POC, the teacher noted “you helped me realize that students shouldn’t just be passive listeners, but 



Doğan Faitour 11 
 

they should also use English themselves” addressing the peer-supervisor. This shows that the 
language structured in this particular comment not only mitigated the criticism, but also addressed 
the awareness aspect of teaching as discussed by Freeman (1989), which is one the most 
fundamental aims of post-observation conferences. 
 
Language Analysis in the Second Post-Observation Conference 
For the second post-observation conference, there were three pieces of main critical feedback that 
the peer-supervisor wanted to deliver. The scripted feedback was the following: 
 

POC2 F1: “I just kind of felt that this lesson was a bit rushed.” 
POC2 F2: “I think it’s important to allow time for students to realize one thing is finished 
and something else is starting.” 
POC 2 F3: “The instructions were a bit confusing for the students.” 

 
F1: 
1 S: About this lesson, I just kind of felt that it was a bit rushed. I felt like there 
2 was a lot of exercises to cover. You had reading. And then playing finger games, 
3 showing right hand and left hand, and the name of the fingers, trying to write 
4 without using the thumbs. I felt like there were a lot of things to do. 
5 T: Yes, I totally agree with you. I’m always in a rush. I don’t know why. Always 
6 in a rush. I’m using exaggerated gestures, at the end of my lesson I feel very tired. 
7 Maybe I should make my lessons more condensed. I should have just one or two 
8 activities. I don’t know why I’m just trying to cover all the activities. and calling 
9 students all the time listen to me, eyes on me. I think you’re right. I totally agree 
10 with you. 
 
F2: 
1 S: ……. There also students couldn’t follow what to do. I thought it’s important 
2 to allow time for students to realize one thing is finished. 
3 T: you’re right. I should slow down. Sometimes when I share the screen, it takes, it 
4 comes a little bit later than I see, they see it later than I show it. So when I say read, 
5 they say teacher wait I can’t see the screen. So they say no I can’t see the screen 
6 and I’m like no come on read (laughs). That problem. I should slow down. 
 
F3: 
1 S: I also thought [teacher] that the instructions were a bit confusing to 
2 students. […….] maybe this waiting time. you know like allowing students time 
3 to think and absorb something. It might be also related to the first point. It was a bit 
4 rushed. Because there were a lot of things you were trying to cover all of them. 
5 That’s why even the instructions they were fast. 
6 T: they were fast and I don’t like silence in the lesson. Because that’s why I’m not 
7 waiting. I should wait. They should understand first but I don’t wait. When there’s 
8 silence I feel like they are not listening, they are busy with another thing, so they 
9 shouldn’t get silence. They should answer my questions immediately. I should ask 
10 them one more. I should keep them engaged. But you’re right I should slow down 
11 and wait. They should think, they should internalize and then they can answer it. 



12 GATESOL Journal 32(1)  
 

 
Lines 1 and 2 of Feedback 1 demonstrate that the scripted and the actual criticism are 

almost identical. They were structured with two semantic mitigation devices: degree hedges and 
authority hedges. By using the phrase “I felt that,” the supervisor dresses up the critical feedback 
as a subjective opinion. If we have a look at the criticism without the main clause, “it was a bit 
rushed,” even with a degree hedge it sounds like a more direct criticism. Moreover, Wajnryb 
(1994) states that use of perception words suggests a cogitative act instead of a declarative act, 
which gives the addressee room to agree or disagree. In fact, the response from the teacher starts 
with the expression “I agree with you.” Therefore, mitigation in this feedback occurs in two 
aspects. First, the supervisor assumes the responsibility for thinking a certain way about the lesson, 
which can be countered to be incorrect. Second, by disguising the criticism in the subordinate 
clause, the supervisor reduces the effect of what could have been a more direct and face-threatening 
criticism. 

The second comment is also almost the same as the one scripted before the post-
observation conference. The data indicates that authority hedges were utilized in the structuring of 
the second comment as well. The purpose of authority hedges was discussed above, so the analysis 
will continue with the lexical hedge also used to mitigate this particular criticism. Specifically, the 
peer-supervisor used style-shifted lexemes. Style-shifted lexemes allow for the non-technical 
language that reduces the distance between the supervisor and the teacher. The main argument the 
peer-supervisor is trying to make here is that teacher’s wait time was not enough for students to 
understand what was going on in this lesson. Even though the term wait time would be used later 
in the post-observation conference, the peer-supervisor first establishes a sense of solidarity by 
delaying the use of more technical language until after a conversation occurs on the importance of 
wait time. Indeed, the response to this feedback from the teacher was a reflective one in which the 
teacher reflected on her own teaching practices, which can be seen in lines 6–11. 

As for the third piece of feedback, the scripted and the actual versions are almost the same 
with a slight difference in prepositions. As well as using authority hedges like the previous ones, 
the peer-supervisor made use of aspect shift as a mitigation strategy. Aspect shifts serve to make 
the criticism less precise, and as discussed earlier, change the focus to the description of the event 
to reduce the bluntness of the criticism. The feedback would have been more direct and threatening 
if it was structured as “Your instructions confused the students or You confused the students with 
your instructions.” By highlighting the process instead of the person who was the agent of that 
process, the criticism is mitigated, and focus is shifted to the event itself, not the teacher. The same 
also applied to the next feedback in line 5 of F3. The peer-supervisor again referred to the 
instructions as being fast, but not the teacher who was fast in giving the instructions. This resulted 
in the teacher referring to the instructions as being too fast, rather than saying, “I was fast.” Another 
important aspect of this mitigation strategy for the current study is that the peer-supervisor had not 
scripted this part of the feedback before the post-observation conference. However, during the 
conversation, she made use of aspect shifts as a mitigation strategy unconsciously, which also 
suggests that her language reflects the supervisory language used by actual supervisors as 
conceptualized by Wajnryb (1994). 

After the post-observation conference, the teacher mentioned in her journal that she could 
not realize she did not have enough waiting time for students and that the supervisor was in a 
position of observer instead of a judge. This indicates that mitigation devices used in the second 
post-observation conference were helpful in structuring a non-threatening supervisory context and 
post-observation conference environment. Data also indicate that the language used by the peer-



Doğan Faitour 13 
 

supervisor again addressed an aspect of the teacher’s instruction that she was not previously aware 
of, which suggests that the second post-observation conference was also effective in raising 
teacher’s awareness regarding her teaching practices. 
 
Language Analysis in the Third Post-Observation Conference 
In the third post-observation conference, there were two main critical feedback the peer-supervisor 
delivered. The following is the scripted feedback the peer-supervisor structured before the 
conference. 
 

POC3 F1: “It’s always good to show the questions to the students before the listening or 
reading to give them a purpose for the task.” 
POC 3 F2: “I was just wondering if you could allow some time first for the students. I 
know you don’t want to use breakout rooms, but I thought it would be really helpful if 
students worked on them [the questions] by themselves.” 

 
For the third post-observation conference, the difference between the scripted and actual feedback 
was more apparent and the two feedbacks were somewhat intertwined with each other. Below is 
the transcript for both.  
 

F1 & F2: 
1 S: [….] I was thinking maybe you could show the students the questions first 
2 T: hmm yeah [taking notes] 
3 S: Because I think it’s always good to show the questions to the students before 
4 the listening or reading tasks to give them a purpose for the 
5 T: hmm, yeah you are right. You are right. They were listening but they didn’t know 
6 why they were listening. Which parts they should focus on. You are right. 
7 S: that’s what I was thinking. And also I think it was great that students were trying 
8 to answer the questions, they were mostly engaged. But I was just wondering if 
9 you could allow some time for the students before the whole class discussion. I 
10 know you don’t want to do breakout rooms, I understand that it can be tricky for 
11 online lessons but it can be really a great opportunity for students to practice first- 
12 T: hmm 
13 S: before trying to answer, they can just, or maybe at least. Or what do you think? 
14 T: yeah, actually you are right maybe I could tell students to think about the 
15 questions individually first. For example you got one minute, everybody will focus 
16 on the question 1, and then I will get your answers in silent. Everybody will be 
17 muted. Or as you said I could put them in breakout rooms. There are four breakout 
18 rooms there are four questions, each room will focus on one question maybe. And 
19 then you’ll discuss it. 

 
As can be seen in the data, the peer-supervisor again resorts to using authority hedges to 

mitigate her language in line 1. This might be because she is a peer-supervisor and does not want 
to imply any expertise on her part, especially with the teacher having more experience in teaching 
EFL than the peer-supervisor. As discussed earlier, authority hedges are used to put the 
responsibility of the criticism on the supervisor, which suggest that the assertion might not be 
correct, but it is the supervisor who thinks this way. Moreover, the use of modal verbs and adverbs 



14 GATESOL Journal 32(1)  
 

such as maybe and could serve to decrease the harshness and the certainty of the criticism 
respectively. What’s notable here is that this sentence was not scripted prior to the post-observation 
conference and happened in the flow of the conversation. This indicates that the peer-supervisor’s 
spontaneous language in the third post-observation conference also started to reflect the mitigated 
language supervisors used in Wajnryb’s (1994) study. 

The second comment in line 3 involves person shift. Person shifts from the second person 
to third person allow for the agency of an action to become anonymous and removes the 
responsibility of the action from the teacher. The criticism here lies in the fact that the teacher did 
not show the questions before the task which led to a confusion for the students. Continuing from 
the previous feedback, instead of emphasizing that the teacher did not show the questions to the 
students, the peer-supervisor structures the language with a shift to third person singular to reduce 
the effect of the criticism. 

The third comment which can be seen in lines 8–9 include both an embedded question and 
conditional subordination to mitigate the criticism. While the embedded question gives the teacher 
the opportunity to not respond to supervisor’s message, conditional subordination changes what 
would have sounded like an instruction from the supervisor to an indirect suggestion. Indeed, 
instead of stating it as an obligation, the peer-supervisor is offering the use of break-out rooms as 
an option. The teacher’s response clearly demonstrates how the hearer also perceives the message 
as an optionality. Her use of modal verbs indicate probability from her part, that she might use the 
breakout rooms in her future lessons. Presenting the criticism as an option also led the teacher to 
reflective thinking that even provided ways how to implement the suggestion in her lessons. 

Following the post-observation conference, the teacher wrote in her journal that she wanted 
to use breakout rooms for her coming lessons. She also commented on how the way peer-
supervisor gives suggestions motivates her more by saying, “Your use of language while giving 
suggestions encourages and motivates me more.” The important thing to notice here is that she 
referred to the feedback as suggestion, which was the purpose of using particularly the conditional 
subordination. 
 
Discussion 
 
Issues in Language Teacher Supervision for Non-Native Supervisors 
As previous research indicates, the fundamental purpose in conducting post-observation 
conferences is to create a non-threatening environment of professional learning and growth for the 
teacher, resulting from the effective use of mitigation strategies. For the language teacher 
supervisors who are also non-native speakers of English, mitigating their supervisory language in 
English poses a distinct challenge, one that requires pragmatic competence. Non-native 
supervisors who speak English as a foreign language might not have the pragmatic competence in 
English as pragmatic competence is mostly overlooked in the EFL context (Alqurashi, 2019). As 
use of mitigation devices might be demanding for even the native speakers of that language, the 
difficulty only increases for non-native speakers. Therefore, it is crucial for non-native supervisors 
to practice supervisory language skills containing mitigation devices that would create a non-
threatening supervisory context. 

Taking into consideration the analysis above, this study has implications for non-native 
language teacher supervisors concerning the language used in post-observation conferences. The 
data collected in the study suggest that studying and consciously making use of mitigation devices 
as conceptualized by Wajnryb (1994) could be an effective tool for non-native supervisors to learn 



Doğan Faitour 15 
 

about and familiarize themselves with supervisory language. The data also show that even the 
unconscious language used by the peer-supervisor started to reflect a mitigated language that 
address the areas of concern for the teacher in a way that protects the face of the teacher, as a result 
of the non-native supervisor having studied mitigation devices prior to the post-observation 
conferences. Indeed, the teacher’s responses to the feedback and journal entries on her thoughts 
about the post-observation conferences show that the non-native peer-supervisor managed to 
create a safe and non-threatening supervisory environment for the teacher. 
 
Cross-Cultural Effects of Turkish on Mitigation in L2 English 
Studies focusing on politeness and mitigation in Turkish found that Turkish speakers prefer to 
mitigate their language in ways Brown and Levinson (1987) termed “on-record negative 
politeness” (as cited in Dogancay-Aktuna & Kamisli, 1997; Erozan & Shibliyev, 2007). On record 
negative politeness refers to attending the hearer’s needs to be independent and not to be imposed 
on by others, by using linguistic devices to compensate for the message that would otherwise be 
face-threatening. As such, language teacher supervision requires mitigating the language used in 
the post-observation conferences to reduce the effects of the feedback given to the teacher, which 
can also be considered on-record negative politeness. Since previous research suggests that 
Turkish speakers also employ such language strategies to protect the face of the hearer in face-
threatening situations, we can argue that the participants’ L1 has implications on the success of the 
peer-supervision process in this study in that Turkish speakers are familiar in similar discourses in 
their L1. Similar communication styles in both their L1 and L2 might have informed the peer-
supervisor and the teacher’s understanding of the mitigation devices in ways to create a growth-
oriented and non-threatening peer-supervisory context to increase teacher awareness regarding 
teaching practices. 
 
Implications for Further Research 
Literature on the language teacher supervision have mostly focused on teacher perceptions 
concerning the classroom observations and post-observation conferences, but they have not said 
much about the language used in the post-observation conferences by non-native supervisors 
(Kahyalar & Yazici, 2016; Rahmany et al., 2014; Rehman & Al-Bargi, 2014; Shah & Al Harthi, 
2014). However, investigating what kind of language strategies non-native language teacher 
supervisors use in the post-observation conferences is crucial as non-native teachers of English 
can also be in supervisor positions, sometimes even supervising native teachers. Therefore, this 
study has implications to encourage further research that would be helpful in improving the 
supervisory skills of non-native supervisors by conceptualizing the language strategies they 
employ in the post-observation conferences. 
 This study also has implications for cross-cultural considerations for the non-native 
language supervisors’ L1. The data in this study showed that the peer-supervisory context was 
successful in creating a non-threatening and growth-oriented post-observation conferences to 
increase teacher awareness. However, the meaning making processes of the peer-supervisor and 
the teacher informed by their L1 might have also affected the outcome of the study, since their L1 
Turkish and L2 English use similar conversational styles in situations where the face of the listener 
might be threatened by the message. Therefore, further research could also be conducted in which 
the non-native supervisor and the teacher are from different linguistic backgrounds to investigate 
the effects of L1 in the success or lack thereof, in creating a non-threatening supervisory context 
with the effective use of mitigation devices in English. 



16 GATESOL Journal 32(1)  
 

 
Conclusion 
Language teacher supervision can be very challenging in that it requires supervisors to deliver 
critical feedback to the teachers, which, at times, can be a face-threatening act. Language used by 
the supervisors to structure critical feedback plays a crucial role in creating a safe and non-
threatening supervisory context for the purposes of increasing teaching awareness. In a highly 
comprehensive study, Wajnryb (1994) identified various mitigation devices supervisors use as a 
language strategy to soften their criticism. In the present study, it was argued that by studying and 
consciously making use of these mitigation devices, supervisors who are second and foreign 
language learners of English can also provide effective supervision with the aim of increasing 
teacher awareness regarding their teaching practices. 
 
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____________________________________________________________________________ 
 

Received: August 17, 2021 | Accepted: November 26, 2021 | Published: April 18, 2022 

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https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccs102

	GATESOL Journal2022, Vol. 32(1), pp. 4–17
	Learning How to Use Mitigation Devices: A Peer-Supervisory Context Between a Non-Native Peer-Supervisor and a Non-Native English Teacher
	doi:10.52242/gatesol.127
	ISSN: 2331-6845

